Media Watch

Longtime radio personality Alan Michaels has accepted the position of operations manager at KWFM AM 1330.

Michaels, a winner of the American Advertising Federation Tucson's Golden Mic Award, has worked in local radio for more than 30 years and is best known as the personality synonymous with the oldies format during his days with KWFM FM 92.9 and KWFM AM 1450.

Hudson Communications, which owns 1330 AM, picked up the KWFM call letters when Clear Channel Communications dumped them as the station at 1450 picked up a Spanish-language music format and became KTZR, its third format change in less than a year.

Previously, 1330 AM was known as KJLL, or The Jolt.

ROMO LEAVING KGUN

KGUN Channel 9 news anchor Kimberly Romo has decided to end her five-year relationship with the station.

Romo, whose family has deep ties to Tucson, joined KGUN as an anchor of Good Morning Tucson in March 2007.

GOAZCATS.COM GETS BACK UA CREDENTIALS

Rivals.com-affiliated goazcats.com has had its credentials reinstated by the University of Arizona Athletics Department.

The UA revoked the website's privileges—including attending press conferences and live sporting events in a media capacity—when university officials said they discovered that former website owner Jim Storey was still involved with the business.

Storey's connection to the privately operated UA sports website and a basketball tournament conducted at McKale Center played a part in NCAA sanctions against the UA men's basketball program.

Shortly after the press credentials were revoked in early February, the university reversed its position.

"Compliance director William M. Morgan today notified (goazcats.com reporter) Tracy McDannald that documentation—a contract for sale and purchase of business provided to us (and reviewed by UA counsel)—sufficiently shows that goazcats is separated from the party in question, and we may reinstate the media credential," said Tom Duddleston, UA Athletics' media-relations director, in a statement.

'TEMPO MAGAZINE' MAKES ONLINE LAUNCH

A group of local music-lovers hopes a new Web endeavor can help boost interest in the scene.

Tempomagazine.net made its online debut last week. The project is the brainchild of a number of local music lovers who broke off from BSceneLive. The new website's hook: providing a greater understanding of the personalities behind the music.

"We want to focus on getting to know the people," said Stacy Fortson, Tempo's artist-relations director. "We'll be talking about who the musician is and the personality behind that musician. It's not about covering someone who's already been here, but getting to know more details about that musician or band."

Fortson and tempomagazine.net staff members have spent the past three months setting the stage for the project, hoping that what they produce online will catch the attention of potential advertisers while bringing recognition to the music scene.

"Our goal is to make money, but we don't plan to do that at the beginning. We want people to see what we can produce. People aren't going to advertise with us if they don't know who we are and what we can produce," Fortson said. "We may not be perfect in the beginning, but our hearts are in it, and we do this because we love it. If we make some money down the road, it's a bit of a bonus."

COZMIK JON PLAYS MUSICAL GREATNESS ON KXCI

It's probably safe to say that prog-rock guitarist Steve Hillage isn't going to pass through Tucson anytime soon, but there's a chance you'll be able to hear him on Mondays from midnight to 2 a.m. on Tempest Broog, the weekly prog-rock radio show hosted by John Paul Marchand, or, as he's known on the air, Cozmik Jon.

Standing in the shadows of community-radio stalwarts Kidd Squidd and the Blues Review, Tempest Broog, now in its 16th year, is among the longest-running programs on KXCI FM 91.3.

A couple of months ago, Marchand reached out to me for guest-host purposes. It had been a long time since I'd stepped foot in the old South Fourth Avenue house converted into a radio station. About 20 years ago, I co-hosted a short-lived show called Movie Friday in a studio that's now a dusty storage room.

Upstairs, where the slightly updated studios are now located, there's still plenty of dust, a mainstay from radio days of old. Other mainstays: records and turntables to play them. (Watching Marchand do the quarter turn to cue up a record so the turntable gets up to speed and doesn't give that slow-motion "wahh" warping sound was quite a nostalgic image.) There's also a ridiculously vast collection of CDs and a control board that must have been handed down from the mid-'80s.

Damn it, this is what radio should be. Not the sterile, computer driven, empty-studio cleanliness the corporate behemoths demand today. And where else would I get to play German band Grobschnitt and some Swedish outfit I can't pretend to pronounce while Marchand chips in with some cool local outfit called The Swigs and a delicious gem from Van der Graaf generator?

Even though Marchand has been the two-hour show's DJ for 16 years, there's very little concern about ever running out of material, because the average prog-rock song checks in at about 32 minutes.

Much thanks to Marchand for letting me sit in. Meanwhile, KXCI is on the tail end of what appears to be another deservedly successful fundraising drive.